The Venezuelan National Electoral Council (CNE) and the Central Electoral Commission of Russia (CER) signed a cooperation agreement on Tuesday, which will be enforced during the upcoming Venezuelan presidential elections, according to a CNE press release.

“The cooperation agreement accredits the CER as the international observer who will be able to monitor the presidential vote and the elections for the regional legislative organs in Venezuela, in accordance with the constitutional and legal norms that guarantee our sovereignty,” reads the statement of the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela.

The CNE added that the agreement creates more opportunities for international participation in the process of monitoring the upcoming presidential elections in the Latin American state. This can be seen as a step towards expanding the visible credibility and legitimacy of Venezuela’s popular democratic processes which have been disregarded and deliberately undermined by the US and its allies for decades.

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On Sunday, Venezuelans will elect the country’s next president. There are five candidates running for office: current President Nicolas Maduro, opposition leader Henri Falcon, Reinaldo Quijada, Luis Ratti and Javier Bertucci. Local elections are set to be held in addition to the presidential elections.

This Russian-Venezuelan agreement also comes in the wake of the Lima group’s “final call” against the Venezuelan elections which, as Fort Russ has reported, represents “the latest attempt by Washington’s axis at undermining Venezuela’s ‘Bolivarian Revolution’ initiated by former president Hugo Chavez, which has struggled to stay afloat amidst targeted destabilization campaigns spearheaded by the US.” The agreement is also indicative of Russia’s efforts to balance guarantees of sovereignty and democratic processes in opposition to the US’ destructive and increasingly chaotic interference in states’ internal affairs, particularly in the US’ “backyard” of Latin America.

Venezuela, plunged into chaos and political civil war by the US-backed opposition amidst the complications of the Bolivarian Revolution’s attempt at building an alternative socio-economic project funded by oil revenues, is thus being extended a helping, potentially stabilizing hand from Russia. The implications of this, the challenges and tasks facing Venezuelan-Russian cooperation, and the vitality of Venezuela’s post-Chavez Chavista project are likely to be revealed in the upcoming elections.

Paul Antonopoulos is a Research Fellow at the Center for Syncretic Studies. He has an MA in International Relations and is interested in Great Power Rivalry as well as the International Relations and Political Economy of the Middle East and Latin America.